Gridlock (TV story)
Gridlock 'is the third episode of the third series of Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Richard Clarke and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones. Overview ''To be added Synopsis The Doctor returns to New Earth with his new companion, Martha, only to find that it has much deteriorated since he was last there. They no sooner arrive when Martha is kidnapped by strangers and lose themselves on an underground motorway of billions of cars travelling onwards without end. While trying to find Martha, the Doctor, growing evermore desperate, makes his way to the last layer of the motorway, where he finds that giant, devolved forms of creatures he once knew are living and feasting beneath his feet. Meanwhile, Novice Hame is under orders to find and bring him to the Face of Boe, who is ready to reveal his great secret - and it has to do with the Doctor. Plot A small futuristic vehicle carrying three passengers is attacked from outside from an unseen assailant. The three occupants try desperately to get in touch with the authorities as their car is torn apart, but they fail to get any response. In the TARDIS, the Doctor suggests that they extend Martha's "one trip" to one into the past and one into the future. Martha requests they go to the Doctor's planet, Gallifrey, unaware that it was lost during the Time War. Instead of telling her the truth, the Doctor instead opts to direct the TARDIS to New Earth in the city of New New York. When they land, however, they step out into the pouring rain of the undercity. When the Doctor shows Martha a screen of what he'd seen last time, Martha is put out that he's taken her to the same planet he'd taken Rose, muttering to herself that the trip is just a 'rebound'. Suddenly, a number of stallholders open up around them selling chemicals that change the users mood. One woman comes along and buys some 'Forget 14' in order to forget about her parents going to the motorway. After sticking it on her neck in front of the Doctor, she completely forgets about her family; Martha is unimpressed by the depths humanity has sunk to five-billion years in the future when she is grabbed and held at gunpoint by carjackers Milo and Cheen. Dragging her to their car, they knock Martha out with some 'Sleep' and take off with her for the motorway, just as the Doctor arrives to watch them leave. Turning onto the motorway, Milo informs the computer that they now have three passengers and it grants them access to the fast lane. The Doctor returns to the stalls and demands to know where the carjackers took Martha; they direct him to the motorway and he tells them that when he returns, he will shut down their entire enterprise by tonight. Martha wakes up in the car and tries to bluff Milo and Cheer with their weapons, but can neither fire them on principle and on the fact that they're fake. They tell her that they are heading for Brooklyn to prepare for the birth of their child (which infuriates Martha even more on account of their carelessness with the chemical moods) but inform her, to her shock, that they don't expect to get there for another five years. Elsewhere, the Doctor breaks into a lay-by on the motorway wherein he nearly chokes on the exhaust fumes before he is taken into a car by a cat person who introduces himself as Thomas Kincaid Brannigan and his wife Valorie. The Doctor finds their offspring, a litter of kittens in the back and is shocked to learn they were born in the car. Unable to reach other lay-by for around six months, he tries to get in touch with the police but they repeatedly put him on hold. Brannigan puts him in touch with the Cassinis, a pair of married carspotters who help him look for the car that took Martha. Meanwhile, Martha's car finally makes it down to the bottom of the lane and is given access to the fast lane. The Doctor tries to convince Brannigan and Valorie to go down to the fast lane as his presence means they have three passengers but Valorie refuses to risk her children. Suddenly, everybody on the motorway starts singing a hymn to comfort each other in the dire circumstances that everybody is trapped in. Refusing to be defeated, the Doctor decides to make it to the bottom layer of the lane on foot. Opening the hatch at the bottom of the car with his sonic, he drops into the roof of the car underneath and breaks in through the top, proceeding to do the same thing with all the cars he passes through. In Martha's car, Milo keeps trying to break off from the motorway but all the exits are closed when they hear a bellowing screech from outside. Another car on the fast lane gets in touch and warns them off something in the smog; the car is suddenly attacked and the catkins driver desperately insists that they get away before their car is destroyed. On Martha's order, Milo starts tearing off while Cheen panics. Meanwhile, the Doctor makes it to the bottom of the lane but with only one other passenger, a businessman in a bowler hat, he can't go down any further. Looking down at the floor of the motorway, he trips the vents to clear some of the smog and is horrified to discover the entire ground level of the motorway to be infested with Macra. Martha's car races through the mass of Macra claws snapping at it; unable to evade them, Martha tells Milo to shut off the engines and power so as to hide them instead. After doing so, Milo tells her that she has about eight minutes to figure out the next course of action before they run out of air. While the Doctor tells the businessman about the Macra before their obvious devolution over the millennia, the car is suddenly joined by the arrival of Novice Hame, who came looking for the Doctor for help. Refusing to give credence to her urgency on consideration of what happened the last time they met, Hame forcible teleports the Doctor to the senate room and shows him what remains of them. A mass of skeletons are riddled around the senate room; Hame explains that a virus developed in the chemical compound a new, highly-addictive mood called 'Bliss' that quickly became airborne and killed the world in seven minutes, aside from those trapped on the motorway, who were sealed off to save them. The Doctor is suddenly called over by the Face of Boe, who is using his life energy to keep the systems of the undercut running, though said systems remain running on automatic. Realising that Hame and the Face of Boy remained in isolation for 24 years, the Doctor agrees to help save the trapped people. Just before they run out of air, Martha convinces Milo and Cheen to have faith that the Doctor will be able to save them and Milo starts the engines up again and continues trying to evade the Macra. In the senate, the Doctor tries to power up the undercity but there is not enough power to make it work; in a last ditch effort, the Face of Boe exhumes the last vestiges of his energy to provide the power necessary. To the shock of everybody on the motorway, the hatch above suddenly opens up allowing them flight into the overcity. The freed people are elated and, on the Doctor's instruction, all fly up and out of the motorway to clear the fast lane. Contacting Martha's car, he tells them to do the same and the car lifts up and out of reach of the Macra. In the senate room, the Doctor sends Martha and Brannigan (to whom he left his coat) a flight path to him when the Face of Boe's tank starts to crack. When Martha arrives, she finds the Doctor and Hame gathered around the Face of Boe as he lies on the remnants of his shattered tank. The Doctor pleads with him to keep himself alive, acknowledging that both of them are the last of their kind. Imparting his final message to the Doctor, "You are not alone", the Face of Boe dies and Hame weeps for his sacrifice. Later, the Doctor and Martha go back to the TARDIS through the undercut where the stallholders have left; Martha asks the Doctor what the Face of Boe meant in his final words, but the Doctor just shrugs it off and keeps going. Having had enough of his secrecy, Martha refuses to go any further until he tells her the truth when the city starts singing it's hymn again. Finally, the Doctor admits to lying to her about Gallifrey and confesses to being the last of the Time Lords. Taking a chair opposite her, he begins telling her about the Time War and the conflict against the Daleks. As he wistfully tells her stories about his home, the new liberated population of New Earth keep singing as they drive through the sun-rays of the evening sky. Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman * Brannigan - Ardal O'Hanlon * Novice Hame - Anna Hope * Milo - Travis Oliver * Cheen - Lenora Crichlow * Valerie - Jennifer Hennessy * Alice - Bridget Turner * May - Georgine Anderson * Whitey - Simon Pearsall * Javit - Daisy Lewis * Businessman - Nicholas Boulton * Sally Calypso - Erika Macleod * Ma - Judy Norman * Pa - Graham Padden * Pale Woman - Lucy Davenport * Pharmacist #1 - Tom Edden * Pharmacist #2 - Natasha Williams * Pharmacist #3 - Gayle Telfer Stevens * The Face of Boe - Struan Rodger Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Gridlock'' page on '''Doctor Who Website